The present invention relates to connection devices for interconnecting cables for conveying energy and signals and/or devices for acquiring, sending, processing, or storing signals.
The invention relates more particularly to connectors used in the art of geophysics to make up systems for acquiring and processing data on site.
During geophysical data acquisition surveys, operators use networks made up of sensors such as geophones or hydrophones connected by cables to intermediate devices each of which concentrates the signals from the sensors connected to it. The intermediate devices are themselves connected by cables to a central processor unit (CPU) to which they transmit the concentrated signals.
Networks of the above kind, which can be referred to as xe2x80x9ccomb arraysxe2x80x9d, are used in a terrestrial or an offshore environment and necessitate major and costly logistical resources (for deploying the arrays, towing them in an offshore environment, etc.).
To maximize the area covered by an array and thereby increase cost effectiveness by minimizing the time for which the logistical resources are monopolized, operators can deploy very large arrays employing from 500 to 2000 devices connected in pairs by cables of the order of 50 meters long.
However, although increasing the size of the arrays is beneficial from the point of view of increasing cost effectiveness, it has several drawbacks:
firstly, the fact that the arrays use different connectors, depending on the connection to be made (cable, device, cable-sensor, cable-cable, cable-CPU, etc.) requires a large number of spare connectors to be available on site so that faulty components can be replaced in real time; and
secondly, the complexity of the array increases the risk of wrong connections (in particular by inverting the direction of deployment of a line of sensors which, with the usual male and female connectors, necessitates physical redeployment of the line, constituting a penalty in terms of down-time and consequently of cost-effectiveness.)
It is therefore apparent that there is a requirement to standardize connecting devices in order to reduce the number of different connector designs employed and thereby simplify the deployment and use of geophysics acquisition arrays.
Moreover, existing connectors generally include threaded mechanical connection means. This makes joining and separating the connectors relatively complex and in a severe environment exposes the connection to the risk of binding.
A hermaphrodite connector is also known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,855,566. However, such a connector provides only a partial solution to the above-mentioned problems, in particular because it enables two connector elements to be locked only over small angular ranges xcex81 on the circumference of the connector. As a result the mechanical strength of the connection between the connectors is limited.
The object of the invention is to provide a connection device using two symmetrical and hermaphrodite connectors which are particularly simple to manipulate.
To achieve the above object, a first aspect of the invention proposes an electrical connection device, in particular for making up systems for acquiring and processing geophysical data, the connection device consisting of the combination of two identical connectors which are electrically and mechanically hermaphrodite, each connector including a body carrying a set of contacts and a ring surrounding the base of the body of the connector, adapted to be rotated relative to said body and including a raised pattern, the device being characterized in that the body of each connector includes two raised pattern sections of which a front section is essentially complementary to the pattern on the ring of the associated connector to co-operate with the pattern on the ring in a locked configuration of the device and a rear section to co-operate with the pattern on the ring of the same connector in a retracted position of said ring.
Preferred, but non-limiting, features of the device according to the invention are as follows:
the pattern of the rear section on the body of each connector is essentially complementary to the pattern on the ring,
the patterns of the front section on the body of each connector are distributed over a plurality of members projecting out of the body and separated by spaces regularly distributed around the circumference of the body,
there are two projecting members and they are diametrally opposed on the circumference of the body,
said spaces are adapted to receive the projecting members of the associated connector,
the pattern on the ring is integral with it,
the patterns on the connector body are integral with it,
the pattern on the ring consists of two projecting parts of the periphery of the ring each having the general shape of a sector of an annular rib and in that the two sections of the pattern on the body each have the general shape of a sector of a groove,
each connector includes housings each adapted to receive a male contact and housings each adapted to receive a female contact,
includes the same number of housings each adapted to receive a male contact and of housings each adapted to receive a female contact and said housings each adapted to receive a male contact and said housings each adapted to receive a female contact are alternately distributed to form the corners of a regular polygon on one face of the connector,
each connector includes two housings each adapted to receive a male contact and two housings each adapted to receive a female contact,
it includes means for guaranteeing a sealed connection when the device is locked,
said sealing means include a layer of elastomer material,
the pattern of the front section on the body of each connector includes ramps that are inclined towards the rear of the body along a generally radial slope line from the outside towards the inside of the body and the essentially complementary pattern on the ring of the associated connector includes complementary ramps so as to cause radially inward movement towards each other of the ring of one connector and the body of the associated connector when longitudinal traction is applied to the device along its axis which tends to separate the two connectors from each other,
the essentially complementary patterns on the ring of each connector and of the front section on the body of the associated connector include a helicoidal pattern so that, on rotation of the ring of the connector to engage said ring with the body of the associated connector in the locked configuration of the device, said ring and said body of the associated connector co-operate in an essentially helicoidal movement terminating in axial clamping of said ring and said body of the associated connector,
the helicoidal pattern on the ring of each connector is respectively delimited at the front and at the rear by two raised rims with different pitches that respectively correspond to the pitches of the rear and front edges of the helicoidal pattern on the body of the associated connector.
A second aspect of the invention proposes an electrical connector, in particular for making up systems for acquiring and processing geophysical data, adapted to be carried by a device and to co-operate with one of the connectors of a device as defined above.
Preferred, but non-limiting, features of the connector according to the invention are as follows:
it includes a plurality of projecting members carrying a raised pattern essentially complementary to the front section of the pattern on the connector with which it co-operates,
it includes a ring carrying a raised pattern adapted to co-operate with the pattern of the front section on the body of the connector with which it co-operates.
Finally, a third aspect of the invention proposes a protective cap for attachment to a connector of a device or a connector as defined above.
Preferred, but non-limiting, features of the cap according to the invention are as follows:
it includes a plurality of projecting members carrying a raised pattern essentially complementary to the front pattern section on the connector with which it co-operates,
it includes a raised pattern adapted to co-operate with the pattern on the connector with which it co-operates,
it includes a ring carrying a raised pattern adapted to co-operate with the pattern of the front section on the body of the connector with which the cap is adapted to co-operate or with the pattern on the connector with which the cap is adapted to co-operate.